More transparency demanded from Transit police after explosives left on YVR plane debacle

TIFFANY CRAWFORD, Vancouver Sun02.07.2013

Transit police using an explosive while training bomb-sniffing dogs at Vancouver International Airport left the bomb on a commercial plane and failed to report it for two days, according to documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation under a Freedom of Information request. A ground crew member directs an Air Canada plane to the runway in this file photo.

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VANCOUVER - The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is demanding more transparency from Transit police after it was revealed that the officer who forgot an explosive substance on a passenger airline was also being investigated for several unrelated ethical violations.

In a statement released Thursday, federation director Jordan Bateman said despite national concern over an officer leaving a small amount of explosives on a commercial plane after a training session with bomb-sniffing dogs at Vancouver International Airport two years ago, Transit police remained silent on the officer’s other violations.

Those infractions included mistreatment of a dog and three unauthorized trips to the U.S. in his police vehicle, according to a 2011 report from the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.

Information that these infractions involved the same Transit officer who was involved in the plane incident was leaked to the federation and CKNW last week.

The officer resigned from the Transit police force in September, 2011.

“This Transit police officer not only forgot an explosive on a plane, he took his police vehicle across the U.S. border three times without permission, lied in his duty records, and, worst of all, mistreated his police dog,” said Bateman, in the statement.

He said the dog needed veterinary care to bring it back to proper health, and questioned why Transit police kept the information from the public for more than two years.

“What else are they hiding from the taxpayers?” added Bateman.

Transit police spokeswoman Anne Drennan confirmed Thursday the officer was the same individual, but downplayed the allegations of mistreatment.

“The dog was found to have fleas. ... There was no physical abuse,” she said, adding that the dog was taken from the officer, treated by a veterinarian and adopted by a family

Drennan said the officer resigned in part because of the incident involving the explosive sample, but also because he was facing an inquiry into the other violations. She said even if he had not resigned, the inquiry ruled he would have been fired.

“Transit police received information that he had gone across the border in his police vehicle on three occasions that were unauthorized. As a result, he was removed from his position as a dog handler and his dog was taken from him,” she said.

Bateman said the public should not have been kept in the dark about the whole reason for the officer’s resignation.

“The taxpayers paying for these Transit officers, equipment and dogs deserve to know all the facts when it comes to what we are receiving for the $27 million we pay every year.”

On Jan. 14, 2011, a Transit police dog handler noticed an explosive device was missing from his training kit, according to South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority internal documents.

It had last been seen two days earlier, on Jan. 12, during training on board an Air Canada Boeing 767 at Vancouver International Airport.

The plane later took off en route to Toronto, and when it landed, a thorough search of the plane turned up no explosives, which were inert without a blasting cap.

Investigators were never able to determine who had seen the bottle-like device, and it was never found. As stated in an internal report on the matter, they believed it had been thrown out in the garbage.

The explosive material, known as Semtex, could not have been detonated from the small sample, even with a blasting cap.

More transparency demanded from Transit police after explosives left on YVR plane debacle

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